Читать книгу Danforth Plays the Game: Stories for Boys Little and Big онлайн

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“You fellow in the red shirt! Where’d you learn to catch a ball that way?”

“At home. I played on my high school team three years,” answered Harry. Barrett grunted.

“Three years, eh? How old are you now?”

“Fifteen.”

“Must have started young,” muttered Barrett. “What’s your name?”

“Danforth.”

“Well, take charge here, Danforth, till I get back. Keep ’em passing.”

Meanwhile Harry had settled down into his groove at school. Lessons were proving a bit harder than expected, but, thanks to a summer of coaching at the hands of one of the high school instructors, he was keeping up his end. Tracey Colgan, with whom Harry roomed in Number 16 Temple Hall, was turning out to be a much more companionable and likable fellow than Harry had at first hoped for. Tracey came from some small town in the vicinity of Boston and possessed all the frigidity of manner popularly associated with New Englanders. But underneath the icy coating was a warm heart and a liveliness of temperament quite unsuspected. After Harry got to know him better—and you can’t room with a chap very long without getting to know him—he liked him very much. He was rather tall and thin, good-looking in a way—nice-looking would be a better word for it—and excruciatingly clean and neat. It seemed to Harry that Tracey was forever bathing or scrubbing, while as for his attire a badly tied scarf made him positively wretched and he consumed more time in dressing than Harry took for his entire morning preparations! Tracey was rather a grind, which, perhaps, was fortunate, since just at this time Harry needed some one to set him an example in studiousness. Not that Harry didn’t want to study, for he did. He had no mistaken notions of what he was at Barnstead for. But football is a hard taskmaster, he was an enthusiastic lover of it, and previous success had made him ambitious to win further honors. In short, during those first two months of school he was inclined to spend a little too much time and energy on football and not enough on his lessons.